Proper hand care has long been cited as an effective way of reducing the spread of germs, diseases, and other contaminants. Proper hand care is especially important in industries where bacteria are particularly problematic such as the health care industries, patient care industries, and the food and beverage industries. Typically, hand care has involved the washing of hands with soap followed by rinsing the hands with water to remove the soap. However, antimicrobial products that do not require a water rinse because they evaporate off, also referred to as rinseless hand sanitizers, have become popular in recent years as another way of sanitizing hands. When such a rinseless hand sanitizer is used, the user applies the product to the hands and rubs the hands together so that the product eventually either evaporates or is absorbed into the skin. These antimicrobial products come in the form of lotions, gels, and foams. Antimicrobial agents that may be used in such products include alcohols, trichlorohydroxy diphenyl ether (Triclosan), parachlorometaxylenol (PCMX), and quaternary ammonium compounds.
When alcohol is present as the antimicrobial agent, it is usually present from about 60 wt. % to about 90 wt. % and is usually present in a gel or liquid. However, alcohol based gels or liquids often dry out the user's hands which leads to skin irritation and less frequent use by the user. Quaternary ammonium compounds have been developed as a way of sanitizing hands without drying skin the way alcohol sanitizers do. Currently, quaternary ammonium compound based rinseless hand sanitizers have been used as foams or water thin liquids because the compositions are not viscous enough to be used as a gel without running off of the user's hands. Further, the thickeners used to thicken alcohol based hand sanitizer gels are often incompatible with a quaternary ammonium compound in that they chemically react with the quat, thereby reducing the antimicrobial activity of the quat and generating unwanted byproducts. Therefore, a need exists for a thickened quaternary ammonium compound sanitizer that effectively sanitizes hands without the drying effects of an alcohol based sanitizer, can be used as a gel, and provides containment on the hands, where containment refers to a product remaining on a user's hands and not running off.
In the food and beverage industry, employees touch food on a regular basis. Therefore, a need exists for a thickened quaternary ammonium compound sanitizer that is composed of food additive ingredients so that employees are encouraged to use the hand sanitizer when working with food and the hand sanitizer may be safely consumed by humans and mammals.